I'm exhausted. I realize lately that my body just doesn't work like it did before. It gets tired easier. And I can't just push through it like I used to do. It just reaches a certain point and then it GIVES UP. Period.
Also my belly is now officially ginormous. And I've officially gained way more weight than my other two pregnancies. AND I still have three more months to go! How is that possible???
I spent most of the day today preparing for the arrival of the much anticipated loft beds. We had to steal away Daphne's toddler bed/former crib to use for the baby's room, and Big Daddy thought she'd enjoy a loft bed (like a bunk bed but with no lower bunk). Then we figured if we got one for Daphne, Beck would be sad, so we'd better get one for both kids. It's time they moved up into big boy/big girl beds anyway.
They had perfect sized ones at Ikea, and at the right price, but BUTT ugly. Plain pine, plain natural stain, plain lines, and cheap plastic coated cardboardy inserts. Blech. Then Big Daddy found a local guy on Craigslist who custom makes loft beds for a very reasonable price. So we ordered two: one in white to match Daphne's white furniture, and one in cherry, to match Beck's.
In order to get ready for the delivery of the beds, I spent the morning taking apart the old beds. I unscrewed all the bolts, baggied and labeled them and taped them to the frames (all official-like). I carried Beck's frame, piece by piece, off to the storage room. Daphne's bed I carried, almost entirely in tact, up the stairs to the future nursery where I realized, just outside the nursery doorway, that the basement doors are about a foot wider than the upstairs doors and the crib wouldn't fit through in one piece. So there in the hallway I had to disassemble it, carry it through the threshold, and re-assemble it. ARG. Back downstairs to get the mattress, back upstairs to put it in the crib. Back downstairs to vacuum the areas under each former bed, back upstairs to put the vacuum away. Wash all the former bedding, wash all the new twin-sized bedding, fold it, carry it back downstairs, pack away the toddler bedding.
Then, finally, after weeks of waiting, the loft beds arrived and were...CRAP. The cherry one, which should have matched Beck's furniture, wasn't even remotely the same color. It was light reddish orangey brown, like a redwood-stained deck. But lighter. And looked unfinished--no varnish or polyurethane coating. And Daphne's, though painted white, was full of nicks and scuffs and was short a coat of paint in several places. Both were made of awful framing-grade wood, not furniture grade (pitted, holey, dinged, knotty). And both hadn't been sanded down! They were rough and scratchy and even had places where one might get a splinter!! I was so shocked by the color of the cherry bed, and so uncomfortable with confrontation in general, that I didn't say anything to the guy when he delivered them. But after Big Daddy got home and we looked the beds over, ran our hands (carefully) over the surfaces, and compared them to the pictures online, we decided we'd have to call the guy and complain. After having had to threaten to revoke our paypal payment when they hadn't arrived a week ago as promised, and he wouldn't return our calls and emails until Saturday, we were sure he wouldn't pick up and we'd have to put a stop on the payment and hold it hostage.
BUT the one silver lining is that he did answer the phone, he was apologetic and cooperative, and he is willing to take them back and try to fix them to our liking. I'm still a little worried about them coming up to our standards. I mean, if he is willing to give them to someone the first time with them being so awful, what will it take to bring them up to a standard that is acceptable to us now? AND we will have to wait another week+ to get them back again. SIGH....
SO...all that work to get things ready today, and the kids, who were practically in a state of hyperdrive all day in their excitement, had to go to sleep on mattresses on the ground, and I had to soak in the tub for half an hour to try to relax my pulled back muscles.
What I wouldn't give for 800mgs of Advil!
I know, sob sob sob. It's nearly as bad as Crime and Punishment. Sorry you had to relive AP English. (Maybe next time I'll offer some Cliff's Notes.)
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
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5 comments:
Here's hoping he gets it right this time...you don't want to piss off a pregnant woman :)
What an awful mess to confront in your state. I'm surprised you didn't just BAWL! I hope Big Daddy will firmly take charge, and refuse the beds again if they are below grade.
Would it help to give the guy a paint chip of the color of cherry?
And how does Big Daddy feel about you disassembling beds and dragging frames and mattresses around the house in your condition? Tsk tsk.
That is terrible! I know its a little late now, but Furniture Row (that furniture store in Draper that is just north of Ikea) has tons of cute kids beds, including lots of loft beds, at really good prices. In fact, most of their furniture is very reasonable, yet very good quality. I've bought my bar stools and new mattress there - and they even price match RC Willey and other furniture stores that sell the same brands.
I hate confrontation too. Recently a woman sold me a chihuahua "for trial" and then she wouldn't pick up the phone or return my calls when we wanted to return the dog because my husband was allergic. (She told me that many people who are allergic can tolerate chihuahuas.) I ended up selling the dog on ksl and taking a sizeable loss.
I bought my son a loft bed off craigslist for $40. I'm not terribly fond of the primary colored metal, but it gives him extra play space. Both kids like to use it to make huts. I'm decorating his room in an outer space thing for a surprise and I'm trying to think of a space themed "hut" cover I can sew up to be tied around the bottom of the bed. Maybe a martian house? Thoughts?
He won't sleep in the bed. Ever.
This is the third bed we have bought for him, not including the very large dog pillow we also got at Costco and placed on the floor of his room. It smelled piney. So it's actually the fourth bed we've tried. He won't sleep on any of them. Since he learned to climb out of the crib, he has preferred the floor. We bought a new treadmill a few weeks ago, and he did favor the very large box it came in. He liked to sleep in it. But otherwise, he goes for the floor every time. He has sensory processing issues, so I guess that's that. After nearly five years, I've decided to just roll with it. It's hard to argue logic with a kid who has sensory issues.
(I would probably not buy an IKEA bed because some of them take special mattresses and I don't know if one would work with my memory foam that I <3 ).
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